Bear Grylls: the real deal superhero survivor dude

Oops! Apparently Bear Grylls, hard core survival specialist with a background part time in a territorial SAS unit (21 SAS, IIRC) and having something-but-not-really to do with Le Phrench Foreign Legion, wasn't real survivaling while doing stupid stuff like jumping off boulders he should have climbed off of if he really was in a survival situation. Its been widely held belief by people who know (ask a SERE instructor or graduate; they're out there) that at least some of what he's shown doing is dangerous and could prove to have adverse effects on one's physical well being. Come to find out, it wasn't all on the up and up. Nice going, Discovery Channel. You're supposed to do an integrity check before the first ep is filmed, not after the second season. At least they're doing something about it.

Well, lookee there.

I saw this rating thing posted over at Josh's place. Since his language is more...colorful than mine, I expected to rate more along the lines of a PG or PG-13. Lo and behold!

By the numbers, I guess I'm even more NC-17-ier than Josh is! More talk of guns, bro!

This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:

* gun (33x)
* shoot (7x)
* ass (5x)
* crap (3x)
* knife (2x)
* zombie (1x)

Can you believe I've referenced things as crap three different times???

Sen. Byrd blasts Vick. Glass houses, Senator.

Senator Byrd, who should probably be officially named "Doddering Fool of the US Senate", has done it again. I guess this guy never figured out the the old addage that "people in glass houses should not be throwing stones".

I will state up front that I find breeding dogs for fighting to be repugnant. I'm not defending Mike Vick for being involved. Still...it makes me wonder why they're going after him Federally with the over-used Interstate Commerce clause. That's going to be a post for another time.

DFOTUSS Byrd had this to say about this situation:

"I am confident that the hottest places in hell are reserved for the souls of sick and brutal people who hold God's creatures in such brutal and cruel contempt," he said.

So tell me, Senator: are those the same hottest places in hell reserved for Exalted Cyclops of the KKK, or do you guys get your own separate hottest places in hell? Glass houses, jackass. Nice going, making this a racial issue now. All in favor of calling for Byrd to shut his pie hole, vote "aye" with a flip of the bird for Byrd.

Words of Wisdom from The Top

One of my favorite customers has recently retired from the Army after 20 years and come to work for my employer. If you're on some of the tactical forums, his screen name is Matt E. That's not Eversmann, in case you were wondering. Matt E retired as a Company First Sergeant, and is a combat vet and Purple Heart recipient. He's also way squared away on shooting and similarly important things. He's just completed the 1911 Operator's Course with Larry Vickers. If you don't know who Larry Vickers is, you better find out or get the hell off my blog. Seriously; you don't know, get outa here. Go. Anyway, he's off to train on the M4 again this week, although I can't recall who its with. Its another high speed dude that lots of people wish they could train with.

All that to say, Top has a good base of information with which to work. A good base of knowledge gained from either being there or learning from the guys who were there. Because of this, he's got some interesting and poignant things to say about the defensive or combative use of firearms in the defense of self, loved ones, or one's country.

We recently had a very interesting discussion about carbines. My friend M4 Guru was there, too. Yeah, the name is not a fluke. He's an 18 Bravo and is a complete and total gun nut. Naturally, when the topic is AR-platform rifles, we get around to the oft-heard comment that "Colt is all name and no substance. My (insert third tier manufacturer or parts gun names here) is just as good as a Colt." Followed shortly by "My (Whatevergun) has shot 700 rounds without a problem." Well...experience tells different stories, and I've been asking a lot of people that go to a lot of classes and shoot for work (see the post below discussing Frankenguns), and those who train those guys what happens in those high round count classes. Trends become apparent. Certain manufacturers gain a track record of failure. That being the case, and it being documented all over the Intarweb, one thing becomes abundantly clear: "Just as good as"...isn't.

To put it into the words Top used: "You can have the 'as good as'...or you can have the 'as'." Think about that.

Independence Day

So I'm at work yesterday afternoon, in The Happy Time. The seamstresses work 7-3. I decided I'd rather work 8-4, which gives me an hour to work with no interuptions, no aggravations, and no machines that need to be repaired by me (unless they kill one right before the day's over, which I don't think has happened yet). I can turn the radio up as loud as it'll go (which isn't that loud, unfortunately) or play some very un-PC tunes on the sad little CD player. Lately, the hard rockin' station has been playin' some good stuff in the afternoon. Yesterday was not one of those days.

I won't bore you with the playlist, but they played a good song about every other track. In between the crap I hate, like AC/DC's same old same again, and the stuff I dig, like that classic Led Zeppelin experimental stuff. The thing that bugs me is that the DJ who thinks he's creative and funny plays some stupid bit from the movie Independence Day about the President (I like Bill Pullman as an actor, but I'd never vote for the guy. If it had been Fred Thompson, he woulda been so money and he don't even know it; gets my vote in a heartbeat) sharing Independence Day with the whole world. We're fighting back! We're taking over again! Even the middle east and Africa...never mind that they haven't stopped fighting each other long enough to take a look at the rest of the world. Because I know everybody's seen that flick (once was enough, really) I'll just refresh yer memory with this quote:

President Thomas Whitmore: Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind. "Mankind." That word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps it's fate that today is the Fourth of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom... Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution... but from annihilation. We are fighting for our right to live. To exist. And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day the world declared in one voice: "We will not go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight!" We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!
[Crowd cheers]

Thanks to IMDB for the quote.

The DJ then goes to make some joke about how when the whole world needs to be saved, we call on the Fresh Prince of Bel Aire. Yeah, it was a bad joke; most of his are. He thinks he's hilarious. If he makes a funny, its usually an accident, but the sun shines on even a blind dog's ass once in a while. I'm not really sure what that means, but it has something to do with just gettin' lucky. His bad humor really wasn't the problem; the quote from the movie kinda bugged me, taken out of context.

The idea that July 4th is anyone's day of commemoration besides America's, at least in the context of America, is tremendously offensive to me. As with most holidays in America, this one seems to be another excuse to take a day off of work, with the added "bonus" of having fireworks involved, too. My jackass neighbors probably spent half their paychecks on what they lit off over the past couple nights. Nice of them to notice the time, but I digress. It seems like, for the most part, America has forgotten exactly what we're celebrating. Lemme break it down for ya.

We were founded as colonies of much larger (at the time) countries. Essentially, we were a new branch office of the homeland. That was cool until the homeland decided we had too much of a good thing goin' on, and they started seeing us as a source of income. That made our forefathers exceptionally mad, and we went to war with England to separate ourselves and gain our independence.

Now, America at that time did not have an Army. Didn't have a Navy. Marines didn't exist yet. They were ordinary citizens that risked their lives with no training for something they believed in. And they won.

About a decade later, they created the Constitution and founded the greatest country ever to grace the face of the earth. Click that hyperlink and read that Constitution. I bet its been a while for ya. Today's a good day to read it again. Every day's a good day to read it again.

Don't forget what it is that we're celebrating. Sure, its great to get together with friends and family and grillin' while hangin' out by the pool...I really miss the pool...but don't ever forget what today is all about. Its too important.